


Lightning Strikes Twice

by FanManSam



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-02
Updated: 2016-10-02
Packaged: 2018-08-19 02:58:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8186786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanManSam/pseuds/FanManSam
Summary: A lengthy and epic tale (or at least it will be!) where a guy goes to a Twice gig and things escalate perhaps even beyond his wildest dreams.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This first chapter is in no way explicit, I'm just covering my bases in case I decide to go there later on ;)

It was, in almost every regard, a typical English day in late August, with the sky blanketed by reasonably unthreatening clouds and the temperature just warm enough to be considered pleasant. Isaac felt the overwhelming normalcy of the world around him as he emerged into the late afternoon air and smiled wryly to himself, because of course for him it was anything but. Today was the day he’d been waiting for his entire life, the kind of pivotal moment that comes around a rare few times in the span of a person's time on this planet we call home. This concert was, in a very real way, life-changing. With the hustle and bustle that is London at the end of the working day all around him, Isaac carried himself and his small overnight bag through the masses and down the steps of Euston train station to the green of Euston Square just down the road, where he sat down on a bench and deeply inhaled the closest thing to fresh air that could be found in the busy metropolis. He had plenty of time before the start of the show, and he figured he could allow himself a few short minutes rest before diving back into one of the busiest and, it must be said, most aesthetically pleasing rapid transit systems in the world, the London Underground. Isaac didn't really do public transport, and as such he felt that the hours of sitting in train carriages listening to music and yearning to be elsewhere had earned him this small respite. He rifled through his pockets searching for the concert ticket, and panic momentarily engulfed him in that very specific way that it does when you know almost for certain that you have what you're looking for, but the thought of not having is too terrible to bear thinking about. Thankfully this subsided as he pulled the ticket from his trouser pocket and gazed at the now familiar letters printed upon it - TWICE, August 23rd, O2 Academy Islington, 7:30pm. Isaac thought they deserved the O2 Arena, but he wasn't about to complain about the smaller venue - after all, the smaller it was, the more intimate the gig would be, and the closer he could get to these girls he'd been idolising for so long. He sat back for a moment and allowed his mind to wander gently, quietly daydreaming about the 9 of them. They had been the subject of so many of his thoughts for so long now that the idea that tonight he would see them in person didn't seem real to him, like nothing more than a particularly vivid dream that he might wake up from soon. He shook his head to clear it of the thought - today was real, today was happening, and it was going to be fucking awesome.

 

Standing in the packed-out auditorium, Isaac was once more reminded of how much like a dream this was. He was surrounded almost entirely by gorgeous young Asians - his favourite kind of company. Wondering what his friends would say if they could see him now, Isaac smirked silently to himself. The thought took him out of the moment and away from his nerves - his hands became a little less shaky, but he could still feel his heart beating hard, blood coursing through his veins with the force of a river in flood. He stood there, very much sticking out from the crowd, and yet somehow, despite his nerves, despite everything, he felt at home. Every single member of the crowd of Koreans standing there felt the same kind of passion he did for k-pop and, more importantly, for the sparkling mirages, the senselessly beautiful goddess-level beings that formed Twice - with that as the case he couldn’t help but feel a level of kinship with those around him. All of a sudden, the lights began to dim, and Isaac felt the assembled throng descend into a hush rife with anticipation, similar to the feeling one gets in a cinema when the lights go down, except a thousand times more tense - after all, films come out every week, but a Twice concert is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Isaac was grateful for perhaps the first time in his life that he was born a Caucasian male and not a Korean, as it meant he got a fairly good view of the stage over the shorter girls in front of him. All of a sudden, a hole in the floor of the stage opened up, and through it rose the nine females that Isaac had thought about maybe the most out of all the girls in the entire world. They were all wearing the same cheerleader-style outfit, yellow and purple with almost scandalously short shorts showing off their flawless legs. The people to either side of him being whooping and cheering, and Isaac found himself doing the same, his voice becoming one with the multitude of voices all yelling out for the same reason, all sharing the same love, and he was once more struck with the feeling of unity and of belonging - but all that left his head as the rising stage came to a stop and the girls yelled out in unison to the crowd before them:

“One in a million! Hello London, we are TWICE!”

The audience, Isaac included, went absolutely wild as the girls began to sing. It was magic.

 

The first two-thirds of the gig went by in a blink of an eye. Isaac had danced more today than he had in possibly his whole life up until now, and he was loving every goddamn second of it. The girls had just performed Like OOH-AAH, and seemed to be catching their breath back after the immensely energetic dance routine they’d managed to successfully pull off. They broke from the awesome final pose they’d been holding, and Tzuyu turned to face the gathering below.

“So we thought we’d try something special today.”

The crowd murmured. For starters, they didn’t know Tzuyu could speak English (she’d probably been taking lessons along with some of the other members of the group), but more importantly everyone wanted to know what was about to happen. Isaac wondered if perhaps they'd written a new song that they were about to debut or something - if that was the case and he was about to experience a brand new Twice song live for the first time he thought he might die of excitement.

“Now, this isn't something we usually do, but we're going to pick one of you out there to join us up here on stage, and then you get to come meet us backstage after the show. How does that sound?”

Isaac had thought the audience had been loud before, but that was nothing compared to the screams that came from them now. Everyone was yelling at the top of their lungs, hoping that maybe all that noise would attract the girls’ attention to them and they would be chosen to join their idols on that hallowed platform.

“Now who wants to select the lucky person?” Tzuyu asked her friends.  
Mina stepped forward. “I'll do it.” she said, with a confidence and a firmness that surprised the rest of the girls, considering her tendency to be one of the quiet ones of the group.  
“Choose a hot one Mina!” Jeongyeon advised loudly - Isaac honestly couldn't tell if she was joking or not.

Mina scanned the crowd, and as she did so Isaac stopped shouting. He had no illusions about actually being picked - stuff like that just didn't happen - and besides he knew that for one split second the source of all his obsession might be looking straight at him, and when that happened he wanted to actually look like a normal human being, not just another shouting crazed uber-fan like those surrounding him.

The perfect almond eyes of Myoui Mina somehow magically found him in the sea of people. She was looking straight at him, and her gaze was such that it felt like she was looking into his very soul. Isaac expected them to move on, after all he was just one person in a crowd of many, but for some reason they stayed right there, looking at him. Isaac held her gaze, shaking like a leaf, too shocked to do anything else. She tilted her head to the side a little, her beautiful brown hair flowing over her cheek, smiling gently with her gorgeous full red lips before standing up and turning to her bandmates.

“I pick him!”

She pointed straight at Isaac. He was stunned. How did this happen? What was he supposed to do? He wasn't emotionally prepared for this, he was barely even physically prepared, his hands were all clammy, he was shaking, he just wasn't ready. What if he got up there and everyone laughed at him? All these thoughts and more flooded through his brain in a paralysing tidal wave. Thankfully for him the masses of people around him began to push him in the direction of the stage, and his legs began to carry him forward as if on some kind of autopilot. He felt like he should be running towards the stage, after all in many ways this was all he'd ever wanted, and yet he was filled with dread. What if they didn't like him? What if they did?? A thousand and one questions, thoughts and feelings filled his head, all of them adding to make a nervous feeling unlike any he'd experienced in his 19 years of existence. As he got to the barrier some kind Koreans helped lift him over, and the slightly disgruntled security guard walked him over to the steps up to the stage. He climbed them, the audience roaring behind him, and at the top was greeted by the most mesmerising vision of a human that he had ever seen. Somehow being closer to her made her even more lovely - something he hadn't even thought possible - and as she walked over to him, her skirt waving gently with every perfect step, Isaac became peculiarly aware of every part of himself, every limb, every follicle, every mole, every cell, because this was the moment that Mina, Myoui fucking Mina, was looking at him and his physical appearance had never mattered more to him than it did at this second. She stood in front of him, her eyes glittering in the lights of the concert, and grinned. She snapped her fingers in front of his face, and Isaac reflexively flinched as if woken from a trance. The audience laughed, the other group members laughed, and Mina giggled softly like the adorable young lady she was. With a flash of her hand she grabbed him by the wrist, her touch like a static electric shock on his skin, and pulled him over to the centre of the auditorium.

“What’s your name?” the goddess enquired of him.  
“Isaac,” he spoke nervously into the microphone that Chaeyoung had conjured up from somewhere and passed to Mina.  
“Isaac.” She repeated his name to check she’d got it right, wrapping her lips around the foreign name like silky-smooth chocolate, and honestly he could have died right there and felt like his life had been a success - if every mistake he’d ever made had caused him to be here tonight then they’d been more than worth it. He nodded to confirm that she’d said it correctly.  
“Well Isaac, how would you like to have a talk with us backstage after we’re done here?”  
“I’d, I’d like that a lot,” he stuttered in reply, hating himself a little bit for being unable to come up with anything more witty in response. Mina took a rubber wristband from around her wrist and put it on Isaac’s, gently sliding it over his fingers. Usually those things were an absolute mess to put on, and yet somehow she made light work of it, her slender digits brushing against his with all the force of a feather, and yet each brief contact had the emotional weight of a fully-loaded lorry.  
“Show this to the man at the door and he’ll let you in. We have to perform our next song now, but we can talk more after the show, okay?”  
Isaac nodded again, afraid that if he opened his mouth he’d only embarrass himself more than he worried he already had, and began to walk offstage.  
“Isaac everybody!” Mina said as he made his way off, and the crowd erupted in thunderous applause, which only served to make Isaac feel more self-conscious as he quickly got off the stage and back into the middle of the crowd.  
“Wasn’t he cute Sana?” Momo said in the loudest stage-whisper imaginable.  
“A little bit,” Sana replied playfully, bringing her thumb and forefinger close together in front of her face in the universal hand gesture for a small amount of something.  
“Come on you two, we have a show to do remember?” Jihyo said, breaking the two of them up. The pair looked almost comically sheepish for a moment, before falling into their designated positions for the next song.

 

The rest of the concert passed in a blur of sound and vision and beautiful women. Isaac danced, he sang, he smiled, he laughed - in short, he had the night of his life. After the encore - which featured an almost disturbingly sexy version of Cheer Up that had all the girls in the cutest school uniforms you ever did see - had wrapped up, he made his way through the exiting crowds to the ticket office to find someone to ask about how to get backstage. The helpful twentysomething pointed him toward the rear of the venue, where he flashed his newly acquired wristband at the security guard as instructed, who dutifully opened the door to him and ushered him backstage. The inner workings of the production would have intrigued even the casual observer, but as someone who relentlessly devoured all the k-pop information he could get his hands on Isaac enjoyed the opportunity to peek behind the curtain and see how it was all done. However, it wasn’t the intricacies of the staging that had brought him here, but something infinitely more exciting. Isaac took a moment to compose himself - otherwise he feared he might vomit from all the excitement and pressure and the overthought thoughts that were whirling around inside his head. A little calmer, but only a little, Isaac strode on with an almost convincing impression of someone who had their shit together.

 

As he entered the room, Isaac was surprised to see Jeongyeon and Nayeon, both still in their schoolgirl outfits, with the former fiercely hugging the latter from behind - or at least that's what it looked like at first glance. As Isaac looked on in shock, he realised that what was actually going on was Nayeon had stolen what he assumed was Jeongyeon's phone and she wanted it back. Badly.  
“Quick, get it!” Jeongyeon yelled as she noticed the onlooker. Isaac, at a loss as to what to do, did nothing. Suddenly Nayeon, sensing a potential partner-in-crime, lurched in his direction and tried to pass the phone to him. This time Isaac acquiesced, taking the device from the girl's vice-like grip and holding it high up above his head. Immediately Jeongyeon noticed what had happened and made a beeline for Isaac, leaving Nayeon alone. This in turn gave Isaac the opportunity he'd been waiting for and he threw the phone back to Nayeon, initiating a slightly cruel but undoubtedly funny game of piggy-in-the-middle. This continued for a minute or two, Isaac and Nayeon chucking the phone back and forth, Jeongyeon becoming increasingly exasperated, before Jeongyeon finally intercepted that which she'd been trying so hard to obtain. At this, the three of them flopped exhausted onto the beanbags the venue had provided that were scattered liberally across the floor. Nayeon leaned over, hand outstretched in an almost laughably quintessentially English manner.  
“That was exhausting! I'm Nayeon, and you must be Isaac.”  
Isaac shook her hand respectfully and smiled at the absurdity of the situation.  
“Indeed I am, it's a pleasure to meet you. And you too Jeongyeon - this is so weird, I've been a Once for so long that actually meeting you like this seems very surreal.”  
Out of the blue, Jeongyeon reached over and pinched his arm. It hurt. A lot.  
“Ow!” Isaac exclaimed.  
“Now you know you're not dreaming,” was the only response. He rubbed his arm ruefully - she was right, but that didn't mean he appreciated the bruise he felt he was likely to get.  
“Don't worry about her, she's always like that.”  
Isaac turned to the sound of the voice and saw Jihyo leaning against the doorframe and watching them with a wry grin - he had no idea how long she'd been there, but the fact that he'd only just noticed her worried him a little.  
“Well, that's good to know, I suppose. Nice to meet you Jihyo.”  
Isaac stood and, instead of going for a handshake, respectfully went for the traditional Oriental bow. She bowed back and was about to say something when Sana came barrelling past her and gave Isaac a massive hug. After a moment of initial surprise he hugged back, and she greeted him with a typically cutesy “Annyeong haseyo,” in much the same manner as that which she used to introduce her V Live streams. She quickly realised however that this wasn't his mother tongue, which caused her to briefly cover her mouth in embarrassment and then repeat her hello in English. At this Isaac grinned and replied, in fluent Korean, that it was okay, he could speak their language too. At this the rapidly assembling crowd all made sounds of surprise and began to laugh at Sana, who now seemed even more embarrassed. Jihyo hugged her from behind and made some reassuring noises in a voice that one could only describe as patronising, which only made everyone laugh more. Momo and Chaeyoung peeked round the door at this point to see what the commotion was all about, and Isaac introduced himself politely to the pair in a manner that managed to mask to an impressive degree the nervous feelings he was experiencing at meeting these idols he idolised for the first time.  
Then she walked through the door, and all that changed. Myoui Mina, brown hair flowing behind her, schoolgirl skirt brushing softly over her perfectly smooth, perfectly sculpted, perfectly perfect legs, slender arms extending out from immaculately rolled-up sleeves, walked in and held out one of the two daintiest, most elegant hands Isaac had ever seen in his life. Isaac stood for a moment, gazing in awe at the sheer beauty in front of him. Everyone around him fell silent - perhaps they realised the momentous nature of what was happening to him, perhaps they just felt awkward because he hadn’t yet returned the handshake, Isaac would never know - but after a few glorious moments affixing this moment to his memory for all time, he stuck his hand out and placed his palm against hers. Again he felt that shock of energy run through his veins at her touch, her skin cool against his, and he shook hands with Mina. He introduced himself to her in Korean, partially to impress her, but also because he wasn’t sure that a goddess like that could even so much as remember his name. She did indeed seem a little surprised at his fluency, but she quickly got over this and returned the greeting in her beautiful silky-soft voice, despite the fact that she must have known that he knew who she was. After this a silence fell over the group, and not an easy silence, but rather an awkward one, one of those pauses in the conversation where you begin to hate yourself for not being enough of a functioning human to be able to talk to other functioning humans. Admittedly these were somewhat extenuating circumstances, but Isaac didn’t recognise that - all he felt was the crushing pressure of being here, standing in front of the girl he’d fixated on for what, although it was really little more than a year, felt like his entire life, and he didn’t even know what to say. Thankfully at that moment the remaining two members, an elegant, well-postured Tzuyu and the ever-energetic Dahyun, made an entrance carrying cups of tea on trays for everyone - including, although he wasn’t quite sure how they knew to prepare a 10th mug, one for Isaac. Dahyun offered him the tray and he took a mug with a cheery “Gamsa hamnida” before proceeding to introduce himself as he had to everyone else. Dahyun bowed her head slightly and greeted him with a chirpy “Annyeong haseyo” in return, before moving on to distribute tea to the rest of the group.  
And thus it was that Isaac was sat on a beanbag in a crowded backroom at the O2 Academy drinking tea and making polite conversation with all nine members of the band he’d spent the most time thinking about over the past year and a half or so of his life. They asked all the typical polite questions that Isaac had gotten so good at answering from his first few weeks of university - where he was from, what he was studying and so on - and in turn he did much of the same, asking the School Lunch Trio how their studies were progressing, finding out how everyone’s English lessons were getting on, all that sort of thing. He did of course attempt to get some information from them about any upcoming projects they might be embarking on, plans for their upcoming second anniversary and the like, but they were canny enough not to give anything away - and the fact that Jihyo was watching them all carefully and stopping them if she thought they were going to say too much didn’t help matters, otherwise he could totally have got some juicy gossip out of Nayeon or Sana.  
This went on for maybe forty-five minutes or so, which might sound like a long time but to Isaac it went by in the blink of a pair of beautiful Asian eyes. There were one or two awkward lapses in conversation, but Sana or Nayeon or Dahyun or someone always managed to find some amusing way to fill them, powering the talking on to new and often wonderfully bizarre places. A solid five minutes of discussion was devoted to rabbits after Jeongyeon started teasing Nayeon about her teeth - it felt a little mean, but as an onlooker Isaac could honestly say it was some of the funniest stuff that he’d borne witness to in his nineteen years (and besides it allowed Jeongyeon to get Nayeon back for stealing her phone earlier). All this was brought to an abrupt end when the conversation about London they’d been having - it turned out they were staying in London for the next few days to relax, and Isaac had been suggesting them places to visit - was interrupted by a managerial type coming in and telling them all that they had to get back to the hotel. Completely out of the blue, Nayeon turned to Isaac and said the immortal words:

“You should come with us tomorrow and take us on a tour of the city, seeing as you know it so well.”

All the girls made varying noises of agreement with this suggestion, but Isaac didn’t hear any of them. He could barely believe his ears - I mean it was kind enough of them to sit there and pretend to be interested in him and entertain him and be generally lovely in his vicinity, but the thought that they might want to get to know him of their own free will? That was almost too much to take.

“I would absolutely love to, but how do I know where to find you?”  
“That’s easy, we’re staying at the Rosewood Hotel, just Google it and you’ll be able to find us - maybe call about 10 or so tomorrow. Oh, and ask for the Park family at the desk, otherwise they won’t let you up - we have a secret codename, isn’t that exciting?”

At this sudden outburst of information, the manager looked very disgruntled - Isaac was sure that this certainly wasn’t the kind of thing he’d signed up for - but at this point there was precious little he could do. He mumbled something about them having to leave, and everyone began to stand up and gather what little stuff they had with them. Isaac cleared his throat slightly.

“I just want to say thank you, I’ve always dreamed of meeting all of you and it’s been as delightful as I could have ever wished for,” which admittedly was a lie, he could have wished for so much more, but realistically this had gone about as well as meeting someone’s idols for the first time probably could. Everyone thanked him for his kind words, and they began to say goodbye. Tzuyu, Jihyo, Momo and Chaeyoung bowed respectfully; Sana, Dahyun and Nayeon all said farewell with incredibly cute girly hugs; Jeongyeon went for a manly hug with one arm in the middle and one arm patting on the back, and finally Mina also bowed as she left, but when she did it it somehow felt so much more graceful than any bow Isaac had ever seen. She said “Annyeong hi gyeseyo” in the sweetest voice he’d ever heard, and then:

“We will see you tomorrow, won’t we?”  
“Of course, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

At this Mina smiled, and Isaac’s world lit up. He, a mere mortal human, barely fit to be glanced upon by eyes such as hers, had made Mina smile. What a spine-tinglingly crazy day this was turning out to be. She bowed again and left the room, and he was left alone, his smile quietly beaming, safe in the knowledge that tomorrow he would have the opportunity to see her again, and he truly could not wait.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading the first chapter of what I hope will be a long and glorious fic - please feel free to leave comments and suggestions for how I can improve my writing style, any thoughts are much appreciated :)  
> My Twitter is @FanManSam if you want to chat to me about the fic or indeed anything else, and thanks again for reading :)


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